James Gurney asked this question in a recent blog post.  He was talking to people who make a living doing art but it made me realize that COVID-19 is affecting a lot of us these days so I thought I’d talk a bit about what it’s done to my way of making art.

Quebec was very proactive in responding to the pandemic and so we got shut down pretty much the same time as the professional sports closed their doors.  So we’ve been spending a lot of time at home.  We did make one whirlwind trip to Montreal to retrieve our daughter because we didn’t want her to spend months living alone in a one-bedroom apartment.

Now I confess that before the virus came along I was dealing with winter and already trying to teach myself that drawing at home wasn’t a crime, though without much success.  Still, I’d drawn a bunch of stuff around the house.  But I started to get serious about this when I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to go out sketching when the snow melted.

Here’s me, in my studio before the pandemic:

Ah, the good old days.  Will they ever return?

Here’s where I spend my time these days:

I built the little gizmo to hold my laptop above my drawing surface because I signed up for Skillshare and I’m watching some courses, mostly making different kinds of marks and color blotches in an attempt to learn how to wield a brush.  Not as much fun as sketching on location but fun nevertheless.

Not wanting to do a post without some art, here’s one of a bunch of floating head sketches I’ve done from Mr. Google people.  What are you doing to while away the time.  Remember when we wished we had more time to draw?  Maybe now is that time, though I’m distracted a lot by the news right now.  Stay safe everyone.